Ask Lemmy

No. I have the opposite perspective: all drugs should be legal and moderately regulated with regard to purity, packaging, and labeling. Advertising of drugs should be mostly banned. I have both moral and practical reasons.

The moral reason is pretty simple: nobody has the right to tell any other adult what to do with their body. I believe this even when someone wants to do something very dangerous or harmful as long as there's no direct harm to others.

The practical reason is that prohibition creates black markets, and black markets produce a litany of harms. Here are a few:

• There's no legal incentive for sellers of an illegal product to ensure it is pure. There's a financial incentive to sell dangerously adulterated drugs in many cases.
• Black market actors lack access to the legal system, and therefore tend to resolve disputes with violence.
• Law enforcement pressures politicians for increased authority in order to try to stamp out black markets, often with harmful impacts on the rights of all citizens.
• Legal and reputational risks prevent drug users from seeking help to break their addictions.